Google may have jumped the gun on announcing that the Android 2.3.3 update for the Nexus One was available - although they did say that it could be a few weeks until the update deployed OTA, it wasn't available for download and install, either. Or, rather, it wasn't until now: the update .ZIPs have been posted and can be downloaded directly from Google.

It seems Google has a funny definition of "a few weeks" - the Nexus One has been waiting for an update to Gingerbread for almost three months now - but late or not, the update is finally rolling out.

It isn't just any update, however; it's the recently announced Android 2.3.3, which features API level 10 as well as enhancements to Bluetooth, Graphics, Speech Recognition, and Media APIs (sorry, the Nexus One won't benefit from NFC enhancements as it doesn't have the hardware).

As disappointing as it may be to see the Nexus One - Google's first officially anointed developer phone - still getting Froyo-based updates, that's exactly what just happened. According to several Android Central forums members, a 558kb update to Android 2.2.2 (or build number FRG83G) is currently rolling out over the air to the N1, bringing "important bug fixes" with it.

In related news, the Samsung-built Nexus S - Google's second developer phone - also received an update today, though this one is Gingerbread-based.

Introduction

A few days after releasing the Android 2.3 SDK, Google officially pushed Gingerbread to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Shortly thereafter, developers (such as the CyanogenMod crew) immediately started working on their custom ROMs based on the AOSP code (e.g. CyanogenMod 7).

It has only been a few days since CyanogenMod released version 6.1.1, their most recent stable update, so it's still likely to be a few weeks before a stable release of CM 7 is available.

Earlier today, Kmobs updated the NexusKang live wallpaper app with the Nexus S live wallpaper background, compatibility with Android 2.3, and some bug fixes for good measure. For those unfamiliar with the app, it's pretty damn cool, letting you build customized versions of the standard Nexus live wallpaper found on the Nexus One. Users can choose their own backgrounds and even their own custom colors to fly around the screen. For a custom live wallpaper app, this one is top notch!

Pretty big news out of the XDA-Forums today - forum member and resident genius Ownhere has come up with a 'data2ext' hack that allows users to enhance the way Android handles OS-specific data and memory. Put simply, this hack allows users to change some partition settings in order to greatly increase performance.

Originally created for the HTC Desire, the hack delivers some outstanding performance improvements and is a must have if you own the device.

In the world of design mock-ups, where phones are seen with operating systems as-yet unavailable to them, the Nexus One can make video calls. Nope, this isn't an internal hardware hack like we saw on the Vibrant; it's a simple attachment in the form of an array of prisms and mirrors called OneMoreFace. We've already seen a few examples of this idea implemented for the older (pre-iPhone 4) iPhones, but this is probably the slickest design so far.

Note: As Frandroid has shown us via the comments below, the OS version and build are easy to fake, and the Honeycomb results were indeed faked by them. Whether the Gingerbread ones are also fake or not is not confirmed, but all signs point to that.

We just spotted Android 2.3 (aka Gingerbread) and 3.0 (aka Honeycomb) on Adobe's AIR Benchmark site, which was designed to test Adobe AIR performance on mobile devices.

The MIUI ROM is definitely one of those things you'll either love or hate, but judging by the waves the arrival of the latest version of the mod has been causing, the community (or at least most of it) is of the former opinion. And rightly so, if you ask me - the ROM is now even faster, features user-creatable (and downloadable) themes, and pinch-to-zoom on homescreens, among many other additions.

Among all the Gingerbread waiting and Nexus S craziness today, this piece of news from the ARM Tech Conference in Santa Clara caught my attention and reminded me once again just how cool and versatile Android can be.

David Gilday, an ARM engineer, demoed a LEGO Mindstorms kit controlled entirely by a Nexus One quickly twisting and turning a Rubik's cube, solving it on average in 15 seconds. An even crazier demo of a 7x7x7 cube solver, this time using a Droid, follows as well.